EIGHT POINT OATH FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

1. Engineering and Technology is a life time mission. I will work, work and work and succeed.
2. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind. That is what process or product I can innovate, invent or discover.
3. I will always remember that “Let not my winged days, be spent in vain”.
4. I realize I have to set a great technological goal that will lead me to think high, work and persevere to realize the goal.
5. My greatest friends will be great scientific/technological minds, good teachers and good books.
6. I firmly believe that no problem can defeat me; I will become the captain of the problem, defeat the problem and succeed.
7. I will work and work for removing the problems faced by planet earth in the areas of water, energy, habitat, waste management and environment through the application of science and technology.
8. My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my nation

INDIA 2020 AND ANNA UNIVERSITY.

1. A Nation where the rural and urban divide has reduced to a thin line.
2. A Nation where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water.
3. A Nation where agriculture, industry and service sector work together in symphony.
4. A Nation where education with value system is not denied to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic discrimination.
5. A Nation which is the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists, and investors.
6. A Nation where the best of health care is available to all.
7. A Nation where the governance is responsive, transparent and corruption free.
8. A Nation where poverty has been totally eradicated, illiteracy removed and crimes against women and children are absent and none in the society feels alienated.
9. A Nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, peaceful and happy and continues with a sustainable growth path.
10. A Nation that is one of the best places to live in and is proud of its leadership.
Now friends, you can see the aspiration and vision of the people of India. It is indeed now necessary to match the impedance between the vision of India and the vision of a technological university.
These ten pillars, there are ten and many other interfaces with scientific and technology. Anna University can work with the Science and Technological solutions to these ten pillars.

FUTURE TEACHERS.

When I see the future teachers in this audience, I look at you dear friends, as one integrated system of education, system of learning and system of knowledge. You have to provide the guidance and build capacity among the youth to participate in the realization of distinctive profile I have mentioned above.
The seeds of peace in the world have their origin in the righteousness in the heart of every individual. Such righteous citizens lead to the evolution of enlightened society. Education with value system has to be so designed that the righteousness in the heart is developed in young minds. That should be the mission of education. The prime learning environment is five to seventeen years of age for over 25,000 hours. This reminds me of an ancient Greek teacher's saying, "Give me a child for seven years; afterwards, let God or devil take the child. They cannot change the child". This indicates the power of great teachers and teacher of teachers. True education is the acquisition of enlightened feelings and enlightened powers to understand daily events and to understand the permanent truth by linking citizen, to his environment, human and planetary. I would like to quote from the great philosopher Dr. S. Radhakrishnan particularly for the benefit of students and teachers - “The sense of human need is there and the teacher can satisfy it by giving to the youth an idea of the fundamental power and worth of man, his spiritual dignity as man, a supra-national culture and an all embracing humanity.” This can be achieved only by a teacher who loves teaching.

DYNAMIC INSTITUTION

1. An educational Institution that radiates greatness by teaching capacity of the teachers.
2. An educational Institution is great because creativity is bubbling everywhere.
3. An educational Institution is great, because it cherishes the learning environment with library, internet, e-learning and creative laboratories.
4. An educational Institution is great, because it creates and generate students with confidence that “I can do it” that in-turn will generate the team spirit that “We will do it” and “India will do it”.
5. An educational Institution is great because it has teachers who lead a unique way of life with purity and become role models for the students and develop them as enlightened citizens.
6. An educational Institution is great because it has the capacity to teach all students to succeed. 7. An educational Institution that generates creativity among all students irrespective of whether they belong to arts or science stream.
8. An educational Institution is great, that generates alumni who cherish that they belong to this Institution.

SEVEN POINT OATH FOR OFFICERS OF INDIAN ARMY

1. I am proud to belong to the Indian Armed forces of great tradition.
2. I will always win and win and lead my nation to victory.
3. I will always be a useful citizen and be helpful to my countrymen when they are in distress.
4. I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity.
5. In every operation, I will always have vision and a passion to accomplish the vision.
6. I will proudly celebrate the success of my troops, my country and my people.
7. My flag is my life.

EXPERIENCE AT SIACHEN GLACIER

I would like to describe my experience on KUMAR in Siachen Glacier on 2 April 2004, when I visited the highest post held by the Indian Army. The post is located at 17,000 feet altitude. At that time, it was snowing and the temperature was minus 35 degree centigrade with heavy winds. When I reached the field station, three soldiers - Naik from Karnataka, Williams from West Bengal and Salim from Uttar Pradesh - shook hands with me. As soon as they shook their hands with me, it became Agni that transformed into warmth and penetrated into me. This warmth gave me the confidence that our nation is safe in the hands of the soldiers defending in the difficult environment and terrain at the highest altitude with will power. Extraordinary leadership qualities are required to generate this warmth among the troops in the freezing cold conditions.

ECONOMIC TURBULENCE

A nation should first have a vision, for it is this vision that will help generate the ideas that will propel its growth. Former President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, said this at the special plenary session on 'Ideas Shaping India' during the first day of the three-day 'Ideas India 2008', being organized in New Delhi by Aspen Institute India.

"Vision 2020 envisages economic development of India by year 2020 by achieving 10 per cent Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) growth maintained at least for a decade," Dr Kalam said while acknowledging that the global financial meltdown, or "economic turbulence" as he termed it, has put an obstacle in achieving this aim within time.

Looking at the positives from India's point of view, Dr Kalam said, "we are slightly safe from economic turbulence because we did not go for complete reforms and Indians have a mind for saving." The negative, according to him was that sales of products have come down. To overcome this, he said, "we have to pump money into the rural economy and fuel prosperity there."

In this context, he stressed on giving impetus to PURA (Providing Urban amenities to Rural Areas) movement. PURA will help in thinning the urban-rural divide and thus help in equitable spread of economic progress in the country, he said. "For me, GDP is an urban notion," Dr Kalam said adding, "and sooner it is translated into what we propose to be a National Prosperity Index, it is better for us." The National Prosperity Index, he said, means GDP rate plus rate of bringing people above the poverty line plus improving the value system of the country. "This would be a true indicator of progress in whole of the country," he said.

Answering a question on spurt in terrorism activities and Mumbai terrorism strike, Dr Kalam said that "strength respects strength. I am of a strong view that we need a UN force for counter-terrorism so that we can react multilaterally to this threat." When evil minds combine, good minds can't be watching, he said adding, "they have to come together."

The former president pointed out three things that people can do to fight the menace of terrorism. "Education to young minds about dynamics of terrorism, bringing elders together irrespective of their religion and being righteous in the heart will go a long way in this direction," he said.

On the front of education, Dr Kalam stressed on giving focus to primary education. "We absolutely need to change the syllabus and system of primary education in our country," he said. "Primary classes should be turned into creative laboratories as that is the time to make change," Dr Kalam said adding, "for this to happen, it is important to train primary school teachers in such a way that they can tap the talent and imagination of children at that level."

When asked by Chairman of Aspen Institute India and CMD of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Mr Jamshyd Godrej, on how to improve the state of agriculture in the country, Dr Kalam said the "way forward is cooperative farming, better technology, multi-crop system and better marketing." Agreeing that the agricultural sector needs to improve to fulfill the needs of the country, he said that there is an urgent need to go for better soil management, seed management, water management and pre- and post-harvest management. "All have to go hand in hand for things to improve," he pointed out.

On being asked by Vice-Chairman of Aspen Institute India and Chairman and CEO Avantha Group, Mr Gautam Thapar about his experiences as the President of India, Dr Kalam said that he realized that "under the Constitution, the President of India has tremendous amount of accountability and unlimited latent powers." Rashtrapati Bhavan for me, he pointed out, is the People's Bhavan.

AN INSPIRATIONAL EXPERIENCE

At a Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100 mtr race. At the starting signal, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win. All, others except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned around and went back......every one of them. One girl with Down's syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, "This will make it better" Then all nine linked their arms together and walked together and finally reached the destination. Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes. People who were there are still telling the story. Why? Because deep down we know this one thing: What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What matters in this life is helping others win, even if it means slowing down and changing our course. I would say that, you do not have to slow down. Rather by helping difficult areas, the feed back will make you go faster. If you pass this on, we may be able to change our hearts as well as someone else's. "A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle".

SCIENTIFIC MAGNANIMITY

IN a speech with the students in NIT he said:"Now, I would like to narrate an incident which took place during a function where Nobel Laureate Prof. Norman E Borlaug, a well known agricultural scientist and a partner in India’s first Green revolution, was conferred with Dr. MS Swaminathan Award, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on the 15th of March 2005. Prof. Borlaug, at the age of 91, was in the midst of all the praise showered on him from everybody gathered there. When his turn came, he got up and highlighted India’s advancement in the agricultural science and production and said that the political visionary Shri C. Subramaniam and Dr. MS Swaminathan, pioneer in agricultural science were the prime architects of First Green Revolution in India. Eventhough Prof Norman Borlaug was himself a partner in the first green revolution, he did not make a point on this. He recalled with pride, Dr. Verghese Kurien who ushered White Revolution in India. Then the surprise came. He turned to scientists sitting in the third row, fifth row and eighth row of the audience. He identified Dr. Raja Ram, a wheat specialist, Dr SK Vasal, a maize specialist, Dr. BR Barwale, a seed specialist. He said, all these scientists had contributed for India’s and Asia’s agricultural science. Dr. Borlaug introduced them to the audience by asking them to stand and ensured that the audience cheered and greeted the scientists with great enthusiasm. This action of Dr. Norman Borlaug, I call it as “Scientific Magnanimity”. Friends, if we aspire to achieve great things in life, we need scientific magnanimity to focus the young achievers. It is my experience that great mind and great heart go together. This scientific magnanimity will motivate the scientific community and nurture the spirit of achievement among the young towards science.

OATH FOR THE YOUTH

1 I will have a goal and work hard to achieve that goal. I realize that small aim is a crime.
2 I will always be righteous in the heart which leads to beauty in the character, beauty in the character brings harmony in the home, harmony in the home leads to order in the nation and order in the nation leads to peace in the world.
3 I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity.
4 I will be a good citizen of the country, a good member of my family, a good member of the society, a good member of the nation and a good member of the world.
5 I will always try to save or better someone's life, without any discrimination of caste, creed, language religion or state. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind. That is “What can I give?”
6 I will always protect and enhance the dignity of every human life without any bias.
7 I will always remember that “Let not my winged days, be spent in vain”.
8 I will always work for clean planet Earth and clean energy.
9 As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my tasks and enjoy the success of others.

THE TRAITS OF NOBLE MINDS.

to know the value of science ,Let me start with an incident about Sir CV Raman – a Nobel Laureate in Physics for discovering Raman Effect. Raman gives the view that the color of sky is blue due to molecular diffraction, which determines the observed luminosity and in great measures also its color. This led to the birth of the Raman Effect. Raman was in the first group of Bharat Ratna Award winners. Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian honour given by the Government of India to the best of human accomplishment. The award ceremony was to take place in the last week of January, soon after the Republic Day celebrations of 1954. The then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote to Sir CV Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan (the President’s House) at New Delhi, to receive the award. Sir CV Raman wrote a polite letter, regretting his inability to go to Delhi to receive the award. Raman had a noble reason for his inability to attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was guiding a Ph.D. student and that the thesis was positively due by the last day of January. The student was valiantly trying to wrap it all up and Raman felt, he had to be by the side of the research student and see that the thesis was finished, sign the thesis as the guide and then have it submitted. Here was a scientist who gave up the pomp of a glittering ceremony associated with the highest honour, because he felt that his duty required him to be by the side of the student. It is this unique trait of giving value to science that builds science.

NAVIGATION OF TIME

PLANT TREES :As you all know, the earth rotates on its own axis once in a day having 24 hours or 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds. Earth itself orbits around the sun. It takes nearly one year for an orbit. With the completion of one rotation of earth around the sun, your age is added by one year as you are living on planet earth. Seconds fly, minutes fly, hours fly, days fly and years fly. We have no control over it. The only thing that we can do is, while the time flies, we can navigate the time. “Let not thy winged days, be spent in vain”. Let us all make the small beginning which will create a big change as has been demonstrated by Nobel laureates. For example, as a first step, let us work on the mission of planting billion trees as a token of contribution for improving the environment.

Planting of billion trees: India has over 200 million children in the age group of 5-17 years. If each child plants five trees and nurtures, we will have one billion additional trees within five years time, which can make a big difference to the atmosphere. Hence, I would suggest that each one of you should join the mission of planting billion trees in India.